LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- A Louisville man is back behind bars after spending more than 14 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit.
Police said 50-year-old Kerry Porter attacked his girlfriend Thursday night, and that attack has landed him in jail.
Seven months after he was exonerated in the case of a 1996 murder, Porter is in trouble with law again. When he was released from prison in December, Porter said he vowed never to go back to prison again.
'You're out of the belly of the beast. It's a cesspool of hatred, bitterness,' Porter said at the time.
But police said Porter committed a new offense Thursday at his new girlfriend's apartment.
Now, his alleged victim's daughter and best friend are speaking out. The victim's daughter, Markea Bivens, said there were warning signs trouble was coming.
'He talked to himself a lot, he wouldn't sleep. Some days I would hear him crying,' Bivens said.
Pat Fogarty is a counselor at The Healing Place, which helps prisoners re-enter society.
'It doesn't surprise me in the least. If his issues weren't dealt with, why would he be any different? Putting a man in a cage, it doesn't cure anything,' Fogarty said.
Bivens said Porter eventually became violent with her mom.
'She was like, 'don't say anything, but Kerry's been hitting on me,'' Bivens said.
'She's a person that believed in second chances. And then he apologized and things would get better,' Judy Calloway, the victim's best friend, said.
But they didn't. On Thursday, things escalated to a new level.
The victim told police Porter choked her, then tried to find her gun and its ammunition clip.
'After he strangled her, he asked, 'Where's the clip?' And then he held the gun to her neck and started pulling the trigger. Snapping it around her body. And he said, 'I'm gonna show you how people do when they snap,'' Bivens said.
Brown called 911 - police said Porter was eventually captured after running from the home.
'I'm not gonna speak on him or his past issues on that murder that he didn't commit, but putting your hands on a weak woman and then run away, you need to be punished for that,' Bivens said.
We asked for an interview with Porter, but he declined, citing the advice of his attorney.
He's being held at Metro corrections on a $15,000 full cash bond, charged with wanton endangerment and possession of a handgun by a convicted felon.
